When You Wish Upon Star Wars - Episode Seven

It took about five minutes for this news to go from an announcement to total domination of Twitter.

My hopes?

Well, I’m not letting my hopes get very high. Despite all of the fanboy dreams that are kindled by the news, I still can’t get excited about it. Lucas did a thorough job of spoiling my enjoyment of the world he created. Adding insult to injury, Disney now forces us to acknowledge that Princess Leia has become (as my friend Hannah Notess pointed out on Facebook) a Disney princess.

But if anyone asked me for a wish list, here’s what I’d suggest.

1. A blu-ray release of the original, uncompromised, theatrical versions of the original 1977-1983 trilogy.

2. A Brad Bird-directed Star Wars film co-written with Joss Whedon. Combining these storytellers’ talents would likely reboot the Star Wars series in a way we haven’t seen since the reinvention of Battlestar Galactica.

3. Remakes of the prequels. This time we want scripts that don’t sound like rough drafts, directors that know why actors exist.

4. Don’t ever, ever reveal shocking family connections between characters again. We get it, okay? It’s a small world, after all.

Honestly, I think they need to get on number 1 immediately. There’s no better way to immediately create the sense that you understand what you’ve purchased and how important those fans are to you. If they do that, I think they can do whatever they want from that point on. Not that they should, but they could.

Also the Brad Bird/Joss Whedon idea is awesome. Even if I could only get Whedon, it’d still likely be miles better than anything we’ve seen movie-wise from this franchise in the last two decades.

My understanding of the deal makes me think any future STAR WARS films will be produced in a way that resembles PIXAR and Marvel releases–Disney retains ownership of the property, but PIXAR and Marvel are responsible for assembling the creative team (director, writers, etc) to make the actual films.

If STAR WARS follows the same trajectory, then Kathleen Kennedy (the new president of Lucasfilm) is the lady in charge, and she’ll put together the team of filmmakers that’ll make the movie. So, while any future STAR WARS films will be released under the Disney label, they are not, necessarily “Disney movies” any more than the Marvel movies (THE AVENGERS, etc) are.

On this day, the third day of the Imperial Disney Era, I find that my foremost reaction is… indifference. And maybe a bit of peevishness, too.

The thing about Star Wars is, it’s about war – war’s right there in the title. This is a fictional universe that lives for battles and destruction, nothing more. The ongoing “Clone Wars” animated series is a particularly grim and violent affair, a laser and lightsaber-filled “Band of Brothers” made for and marketed to little kids. Charming.

I’ll always love the Original Trilogy, which, though taking place in a time of war, was far more about Luke, Leia and Han growing up/maturing in a series of madcap adventures then it was about the Galactic Civil War. The prequels, on the other hand, were all about war, even before there was one, with the series’ new opening scene being a planetary invasion. I suppose that further Star Wars could theoretically get back to zany stories like our favorite trio using their wits and bravery to escape the Death Star, but I’m not optimistic.

Now, as a lifelong Trekkie, I look forward to Abrams’ Trex XII, and more Treks beyond that. And while it’s true that, with one major exception (“The Voyage Home”), Trek movies have been as violence-filled as any other adventure franchise, even at its loudest and brashest (see: 2009’s Trek XI), there’s a hopeful and peaceful undercurrent to ’em: humanity may not always get along with the aliens behind the next constellation, but most of us humans will at least learn to get along with *each other*, hang it.

Would I like to see the Prequel Trilogy remade (though that’ll never happen, even now)? … Yeah, I guess I would. We deserved a better Clone War, and fall of Anakin, than that. And I love Timothy Zah’s action-packed, five-years-after-Endor Thrawn trilogy as much as I love the original movies.

But, when it comes to that galaxy far, far away… I’d kinda like to give Star Peace a chance. Beam me up, Enterprise, there ain’t much intelligent life on Coruscant, not even Yoda!